House GOP leaders on lessons from 2018 midterms, agenda

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House GOP leaders on lessons from 2018 midterms, agenda

Newly elected House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise join Laura Ingraham in an exclusive interview on 'The Ingraham Angle.'

This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," November 14, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Hannity, thanks so much. Fantastic show as always tonight. I'm Laura Ingraham. This is “The Ingraham Angle” from Washington tonight, a lot to bring you and we will unpack it all. What's really going on with the ballot box in Florida? Tonight, Angle investigates the corruption and dirty dealings and tells you why the GOP should unite to fight it. And lawyer to the porn stars, you heard Hannity talking about Michael Avenatti and some legal troubles of his own. And Michelle Obama taking some sidle cheap shots at President Trump. Raymond Arroyo has got it all in the seen and unseen.

Plus, how will they fight the new Democratic majority in congress? Republican majority leader Kevin McCarthy and whipped Steve Scalise are here exclusively. And former independent counsel Ken Starr and Andy McCarthy are here as well. Lots of legal developments to unpack, but first, Snipes and swipes at the ballot box. That is the focus of tonight's Angle.

The integrity of our elections is imperiled tonight. We may be witnessing yet another in a series of stolen elections in Florida. Democrats are experts at pulling swifties (ph) at the ballot box, you know, it is widely believed that they resorted to voter fraud in Illinois and Texas to tilt the election of John F Kennedy over Nixon in 1960. And they may be up to their old tricks again. Ballot irregularities in Palm Beach and Broward County in Florida are front and center. The President, of course, has been very vocal about what he believes is happening there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, you take a look at the past. Take a look at the past. And all of a sudden they are finding votes? You mean, after the election they are finding votes?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Predictably, the media had rush in to pooh-pooh any notion of voter fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no evidence to back up the claim, aimed at the Florida recount. But it offers a window into the president's state of mind. To be very clear, and I just want to make sure everybody at home understands, there is no evidence to that story. It is like it never happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: The New York Times yesterday wrote, in Florida, no one has offered evidence of widespread election fraud. No one? I love the weasel word widespread, NATO. If 1-2 counties in Florida are engaged in voter fraud, it is widespread. It affects the entire state results and the results perhaps of the rest of the country. Let's examine the facts. Things are so bad in Palm Beach that Governor Rick Scott, who was in a tight Senate race there, sued the county election supervisor, Susan Bucher. The judge determine that she had a legal withheld over voted and under voted ballots from the canvassing board. And worst she has refused to allow public scrutiny of the ballots. Scott has vowed to fight back against Democrats playing fast and loose with the voter's will.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT, R-FLA.: I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And the governor has also sued Broward County election supervisor -- something of a k-- kind of her own rock star these days Brenda Snipes. Now, Snipes is a piece of work. Her predecessor literally walked out of her office in 2003 for a grave and neglect mismanagement and incompetence. Practically a tradition down there in Broward. And in May, a Judge found Brenda Snipes guilty of illegally destroying ballots during a primary election in 2016. But in August, a court found her guilty of secretly opening mail in ballots, which is illegal in her state. But on Friday, Governor Scott won his lawsuit against Snipes. The court found that in this election, she continued to discover new ballots. She was found in violation of the state's public records law and has been ordered to release information to Governor Scott. So far? She hasn't complied with the order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You refused to give the Scott campaign the information they wanted and had to go to court. The judge said you had to turn it over. You didn't turn it over by the deadline that was given. That is cast as a partisan's spat, that you are doing that because you're a Democrat. How do you respond to that?

BRENDA SNIPES, ELECTION COMMISSIONER: Well, I was talking with the woman today and she came in the office and she made some statement about a partisan's statement, and she said I know you are a Republican. I said I have been a Democrat all my life. In this position, I have been very focused on Party, because I want to treat all of the voters in Broward County the same. We don't select who we give out information to. We give information to those persons who have requested it. I believe the public records request is in a timely manner. And we attempt to do that.

And --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: And -- wait a second. Did she actually hear the question? This woman is unbelievable. The Miami Herald reports that an election worker found bags of uncounted early ballots in the Broward County elections office. Snipes also mingled rejected the provisional ballots with the accepted ones and then she proceeded to count them all in the official vote tally Neato. Now a recount is underway where the counters must discern the intent of the voters if there is a mark on the ballot here or there.

My friends, this is a complete travesty that cannot be permitted to change the outcome of this election. It sadly is not restricted to the sunshine state. We are going to show you what some Democrats are trying in Georgia in just moments. So what is next? I think as the Kavanaugh fight demonstrated, the Republicans must stand united to expose the maleficent and the fraud of the left. Because when we do, we usually win.

We cannot allow this flouting of the rules and procedures by corrupt officials or political hacks, cannot let it stand. If we allow this to go unchecked, it will undermine our democracy, and like a contagion it's going to spread across the nation. 18 years? Can you believe it, since Bush v Gore? It's absolutely unforgivable that we are still dealing with these type of issues.

It is time for the Department of Justice to step in and do a top to bottom investigation regarding why these issues still persist. If necessary, people are going to have to go to jail. There has to be repercussions for willful fraudulent defiance of electoral laws. If this isn't cleaned up, I'm telling you, the GOP can kiss any hopes of restoring their majority, let alone a Presidential victory. They can kiss it bye-bye in 2020. And that is The Angle.

Joining me now, Richard Denapoli, former chairman of the Broward County GOP and current state committee man and also a recount monitor, so he is actually in the room while the votes are being tabulated in Broward. And also with me, Blaise Ingoglia, chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

Richard, let me start with you tonight. Give me some insight in to what you have uncovered as you have observed what's been going on in your home state, estate we all love so much. What have you found?

RICHARD DENAPOLI, ELECTION ACCOUNT MONITOR: Well, it is a national embarrassment here in Broward County. We've had Brenda Snipes as the supervisor of election for about 15 years now. And just repetitive problems. One after another, she is faced multiple lawsuits over the years, she has illegally destroyed ballots, she has not followed the law. There are so many irregularities in Broward County that all confidence in her is lost as a fair arbiter in the election.

You know just myself on Sunday night, and Avis employee from a rental agency at the airport contacted me to let me know that there was a provisional ballot box left in a rental car at the airport which contained unmarked ballots in it. There are a lot of problems here in Broward County. No one has any confidence in Brenda Snipes.

INGRAHAM: OK so, a box of unmarked ballots. What can possibly go wrong with that? Just floating around on carts. Are they supposed to even leave the polling places? They don't like it would seem like -- that is like having a test floating around, SAT test floating around or something. That is obviously a lot worse than an SAT test. It is just ridiculous.

DENAPOLI: It is.

INGRAHAM: Blaise, I want to go to you. Because Snipes seems to be in willful disobedience of court orders. She just simply doesn't care. I mean, she is making $178,000 a year. She is got 10 percent-20 percent salary bump up in 2016. She is making pretty good coin for screwing up another election. But why should anyone have faith in this process here and yet all these media outlets, there is no fraud, no fraud at all? Look the other way. No fraud.

BLAISE INGOGLIA, FLORIDA REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: Yes. Laura, to your point, the Florida GOP, we sued Brenda Snipes after last election because we saw a lot of the same stuff happening in this election. We got an order from a Judge just telling to basically to follow the law. Nothing more than just "follow the law." Supervisor Snipes then went to court asking them to lift that order and we had to go back to get them to put that order back in place for this election, but by her asking a judge to lift the order and all the order said was just to follow the law, that goes to show you the mind-set of a supervisor Snipes. She clearly does not want to follow the law, she wants to do what she wants to do, and what she is doing is not transparent. She is doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes outside the public eye and that is eroding the confidence in her abilities and the electoral process that you are referring to.

Here is the problem and this is the big problem. There are so many problems going on in Broward and Palm Beach counties. This is where the liberal media gets it wrong. If they keep on saying if there is no evidence of voter fraud, when I am asking is show me that there is no voter fraud going on at all, because of all of these inconsistencies, if there were fraudsters that wanted to fraud in the election all they would have to do is head to Broward or Palm Beach.

INGRAHAM: Yes, I mean, it should be the opposite. The burden should be on them to show them this is actually working legitimately. I want to play something for both of you. This is Brenda Snipes last night in a tour de force performance on CNN about the separated ballots. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Your critics point to 2020 rejected provision -- 22 rejected provisional ballots that were put in a batch of 200 valid ones.

SNIPES: There were 25 ballots in question, not 21. Those 25 ballots had not been counted as of today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Well, one little problem there. Her own lawyer contradicted what she said today. This guy Pettis said, he told reporters following a Saturday deadline to transmit Broward's results at the canvassing board. They had in fact included those provisional ballots and it count. The 205 previously open provisional ballots are they included in the numbers sent to the state or not ask the reporter. Yes, they are Pettis responded. They had been included in that process, but there is no way to separate out valid and invalid, correct? I will go to Blaise -- or Richard.

DENAPOLI: Exactly right. The problem here is if she just did her job, which is she is supposed to report the total of 30 minutes after the polls close at 7:00 p.m. And she did not accomplish that while other counties across the state whether large or small, Miami-Dade County with many more voters tabulated its results in a timely fashion, but it all comes down to Broward where over 80,000 ballots came in after the deadline! And that is the core problem here. That is why you have these allegations of fraud, is because, did these ballots actually arrive by the deadline of 7:00 p.m.? Who knows? Only Brenda Snipes knows.

INGOGLIA: What so concerning about what Brenda Snipes just said is that she either has no clue what's going on or she is blatantly lying to everyone in the clip. Just think about this for a second. Brenda Snipes took an illegal ballots and willingly mixed them with legal ballots. Just think about that for a second. This is a supervisor of elections. It was such a bad job and such incompetence that they could not tell which ones were legal, which ones were illegal, so they were just, like, you know what, let's just throw them altogether. That is the problem. That is one of the reasons why we, I, the Florida GOP, we have been fighting so hard for transparency. Because unless we know what exactly what they are doing behind closed doors, will never know what they're doing. We have no idea.

INGRAHAM: You will never going to know guys and I'm telling you, Republicans will never win Florida again unless these stuff is cleaned up. I mean, every day I keep saying, I can't believe this is happening, but it seems to get worse on a daily basis. They want to extend the deadline to next Tuesday, they want to keep extended the deadline and all these lawsuits because they think they will find the votes? Trump is exactly right.

INGOGLIA: Laura, that is because they cannot win unless they litigate their way to a win. Look, there's not enough votes out there. We have 41 of 67 counties report today for the machine recount. Bill Nelson only increased his vote total by 49 votes. At this rate, Bill Nelson will pass Governor Rick Scott in the year 3640. This race is over.

INGRAHAM: This is ridiculous. I think the feds have to come in for the state is not cleaning this up. By the way, again, some people might not already know this, but Gillum and Nelson's lawyers are fighting to include noncitizens in the vote in Palm Beach. I guess in the recount. That is in the transcript that came out. Unbelievable.

DENAPOLI: The real trial has yet to begin.

INGRAHAM: Exactly. Thank you for explaining that. We'll have you back because this is going on for some time. As we just explained, incompetence runs deep in some of the Florida, more Democratic counties. For raising questions, Republicans are told that they are engaged in "wild conspiracy theories.", but some of the most prominent Democrats in the country get a free pass for using completely over-the-top language about the Georgia gubernatorial race without any evidence at all. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Stacey Abrams doesn't win in Georgia, they stole it. It's clear. I say that publicly. It's clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that Stacey Abrams election has been stolen from her using what I think is insidious measures to disenfranchise certain groups of people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she had a fair election, she already would have won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: No media concern about that. Here now, David Bossie, deputy campaign manager for Trump 2016. And of course, Fox News contributor, Dan Bongino, former secret service agent, and are in a TV host. Da, let's start with you. The GOP is diverting the rule of law in Florida by asking folks to follow actual election law, what do you call this from the Democrats in Georgia?

DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: I'm not surprise Hillary Clinton thinks Stacey Abrams is the governor. She thinks she is the President. I mean, she legitimately thinks that she won that election -- Hillary Clinton is still confused Laura that the Electoral College is how we elect Presidents and not the popular vote. Not only is this stunning, but this is what the Democrats do now. This is the new M.O., Laura. They lose the senate, you'll see a bunch of liberal outlets, the Vox, every time I say that people think I'm saying box, you know, we see them say wow, we got to disband the senate. This isn't working. The Supreme Court, they lost 111 of it. We got to stack the courts, these are the Democrats! They do not take fidelity to the rule of law seriously. One more thing, Laura, you know, we had a bad night. I mean, Republican, let's just accept it. It wasn't a great night, it wasn't a total wipeout, but it wasn't a good night. Do you know what happened, Laura? Everybody went to work the next day. They took their kids to the soccer game, no one was bashing a Starbucks like Antifa. Just get over it. The Georgia race is over, you lost.

INGRAHAM: All right Dave, we are going to get to some of the real numbers in the house later on with Scalise and McCarthy. This Georgia stuff is toxic. They are actually intimating a whole lot of negative things on the left against Brian Kemp to almost delegitimize him before he is inaugurated as the next governor of Georgia.

DAVID BOSSIE, “LET TRUMP BE TRUMP”, AUTHOR: They are doing to Brian Kemp what they did to President Trump right from the first day. He is not a legitimate President. He is not our president. He did not win a rightful election. Therefore, for the last two years, they do not respect him, they bash him, they try to further delegitimize him. And they are going to continue to do this in Georgia, they are going to try to do this to Rick Scott in Florida. They are doing it across the country. Wee this -- I look at this as potentially a stress test for how they want to go ahead and learn from this, even though they will not win everything, they stress test for 2020 so that they can between now and then figure out how to manipulate, how to through litigation and through backdoor maneuvers win these races by stealing them in 2020.

INGRAHAM: And Dan, it's not just you know kind a general criticism of the process. The reason the Georgia allegations are so toxic and poisonous all across the board is because they are intimating that Kemp's supporters and the machinery of the process in Georgia is basically racist. That this is a -- you are suppressing black vote by cleaning up voter rolls, which is mandated by law, by the way, but it's always rigged. Always pushing the racial narrative.

BONGINO: Yes, Laura, it's really discussing. You are seeing this down in Florida as well with Gillum, the Democrat nominee, he was -- on the campaign trail, he worked hard, he lost fair and square, but the narrative in Florida now as well, there are some racial politics involved and Florida wasn't ready for a black governor -- Laura, Florida voted for Barack Obama twice. I wish they hadn't, but they did. It's such a stupid narrative. And it's really pernicious. I'm glad you're bringing this up, because it is such a -- Laura -- serious question, is there anything worse to call someone in the country a racist? And the liberals know that. They know that it's nonsense. It's really, really sad. They keep ripping the country apart going back to identity politics.

INGRAHAM: And Dave, you keep thinking it's not going to go lower, but it does. For all the high and mighty talk, of you know, they go low, we go high, Michelle saying that on the book tour. OK, that is fine.

BOSSIE: When you put it back on the streets, they create violence, they create distractions. Look, if it was me, if I was Ron DeSantis, I would be firing this woman Brenda Snipes in one of my first actions on the job, because no one in Florida, no matter what side you are on, can have confidence in this --

INGRAHAM: Why did Rick Scott let her stand?

BOSSIE: I think that is a question for a different day. I think the new governor coming in with a clean slate can make moves. I hope he does. He needs to take very seriously what steps he needs to take to make sure Florida vote in 2020 is clean.

INGRAHAM: If the states can't get this done, there should be a voting rights act investigation undertaken by the Justice Department.

BOSSIE: May be Mueller can take this over. Maybe if he is really looking for something to do, and he wants to find voter suppression issues, maybe Mueller --

INGRAHAM: Dan Bongino, can you imagine what they will say when Matthew Whitaker comes in and totally up and lowered out, they'll really have a conspiracy going. (Inaudible) All right, guy's thanks so much and coming up, how will House Republicans, what Dave and I were just talking about resist Democrats who are determined to lob subpoenas at the President? Fresh up their leadership elections today, current house majority leader Kevin McCarthy and with Steve Scalise will explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: One of the lessons to be learned from the midterms was that the failure of RNC and GOP party leaders to highlight their races that really matter. Well, California is a prime example where even a week later, the GOP is still losing races they should've won. Republicans now have the least representation in that state since the civil war. It's a heartbreak. Here to react our two Republican leaders in the house, who are reelected today to their positions for the 116th Congress today and house majority leader Whip Steve Scalise whose book, I love it, I am holding it back and again, "One gunman, countless heroes, and the fight for my life," just hit the shelves yesterday. I love the book. Congressman, thank you so much for being here. We have to talk about the midterm results first.

Congressman McCarthy, I want to talk to you about this California deal, because I've been talking to a couple of committee people in California and they are enraged, because they felt like, they were outspent in that state. They were outmaneuvered and there was no reason at least maybe five of those seats should flip Democrat. What insight can you give us?

KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF., HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Well, a couple of things happened in California. First of all they created this top two system. So here we are in the top two, it pushes out Republicans.

INGRAHAM: Nobody understands what that means.

MCCARTHY: Top two in the primary. Whoever gets the top two numbers goes on to the general election? Our Senate race, we didn't have a Republican. We are now finding when we had our Senate race, there was no Republican.

(CROSSTALK)

This is what causes the problem, because you are not getting a quality head. So, we didn't have a strong governor candidate who can help carry through. We had seven seats in the congressional that Republicans currently hold that Hillary carried, and we had Michael Bloomberg come over the top of it. $5 million. They spent 150 million more dollars than we had in this process.

Now we went out with the Vice President Mike Pence and we raise more money than we ever had before, but when you can write a $5 million check and you focus on Stephen Knight, or if you go into -- look at Mimi Walters. She was ahead by 6,000 votes on Election Day winning and when then provisional ballots come forward and all of a sudden we are losing --

INGRAHAM: Is there transparency in looking at these provisional ballots in California?

MCCARTHY: Do you know, what is the difference between California and Florida? We don't have a Republican governor?

INGRAHAM: What is the oversight?

MCCARTHY: Very, very difficult.

INGRAHAM: Antifraud?

MCCARTHY: We are finding others. If they are registered to vote in the process? Is the election law going through, we are analyzing all of them now? But we were ahead, we lost Jeff Denham, we are behind in Mimi Walters. Kim were challenged, David Valideo, and you look at Dana Rohrabacher. Here are seats that are fundamentally different on Election Day --

INGRAHAM: We have to learn that one fast, because that is a big one. Congressman Scalise, I want to also talk about what's going on the Democrat side before we talk about what might happen going forward the Republicans. There is a lot of push back against Nancy Pelosi becoming the next speaker. You all can vote in these speakers' races, right. It is for everyone to vote. Would you support Nancy Pelosi? Will you announce her as speaker?

REP STEVE SCALISE, R-LA., HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: I think they deserve Nancy Pelosi as speaker, but I sure don't want to see it. I went through two and a half years of Nancy Pelosi as speaker when I came in not long after Kevin and she was bigger and you saw what she did to the country. They rammed through Obamacare with the famous, you have to pass the bill to find out what's in it. They did cap and trade in the house --

INGRAHAM: But there are more radical than she could be. That person could be worst.

SCALISE: You saw the left. Cortes from New York, was actually protesting in Nancy Pelosi's office, because she does not think Nancy Pelosi is liberal enough. Imagine that. So that is how far left of center their party has moved. If they govern that way, Laura, that is not how they campaign. All those districts they flip seats from Republicans to Democrats, those candidates didn't say they were going to be more liberal than Nancy Pelosi. In fact, many of them said they are going to be pro- life, pro-gun, anti-Pelosi. Their very first vote in January will determine whether or not they keep or break that promise.

INGRAHAM: You think, she will get the speakership? We got a whole list of people saying she should not run. They don't want her to run.

MCCARTHY: They will fold because they came from the minority to the majority. They won with women votes. They are going to remove the woman speaker for a man? Think of this. If they go back to the same old --

INGRAHAM: Subpoenas are going to be applying.

MCCARTHY: But this is the old leadership. The average age in the process, mostly but this is the same leadership they've had before. Nancy, Steny Hoyer and Clyburn.

INGRAHAM: It screams youth. What about you guys. Let's talk about what's in store versus you versus Jim Jordan. The President wants Jordan, he tweeted out, he is interested in Jim Jordan going to the house judiciary to be a help for him on the judiciary.

MCCARTHY: The President and I almost talk every single day. He just called me tonight. We just had our election. Jim Jordan and I come in together. I think we are more united than we've ever been. Jim is on oversight. Jim also serves on judiciary, so he is there to make those fights. I think as we move forward, we'll do our steering committee and people can run for the ranking member slots for those lots are open. The conference will decide.

INGRAHAM: How would you do with these subpoenas? They are dealing with everything to the naming of the post office building, the emoluments clause and who knows?

SCALISE: The Kavanaugh hearing showed that the country doesn't want that kind of obstruction. President Trump has worked really hard to get this economy back on track. And we worked very close with the president and he is talked to a lot of us about the things that we wanted to do to keep the economy going. If they want to focus on turning back the economic growth, try to raise taxes, they are not going to have that happen.

If they want to try to just sit there and obstruct and block everything that the president wants to do and go down the impeachment road, that's, again -- those members that flipped seats from Republican to Democrat campaigned says would do opposite of that. So if they do, they are going to pay a dear price. And ultimately that's one of the ways we get the majority back in two years.

INGRAHAM: Congress McCarthy, a lot of concern about the caravan that was supposed to never get here, it was a month away, or don't worry, it's not an emergency. A lot of people in the caravan are in San Ysidro tonight.

MCCARTHY: They're on the wall.

INGRAHAM: They're on the wall. They are climbing over the fence. It's not a wall, but they're climbing over the fence on top.

MCCARTHY: In California, we built the wall. That's part of the funding added.

INGRAHAM: Part of it.

MCCARTHY: Part of it, we have to finish it.

INGRAHAM: Are they passing ballots to them? Here pass it to him and then pass it on.

MCCARTHY: They read the provision.

INGRAHAM: But what about the lame duck? What's going to happen in the lame duck. A lot of people are worrying that it's either going to be a bad amnesty deal, a ram through of amnesty, not going to get funding for the wall, the president needs that funding.

MCCARTHY: On the House side, we feel very good about this. We have more than 5 billion. That's in addition to the billions we've already sent. The Senate has already been the challenge. We are working with the president and the Senate because we are still in the majority until January. And the American public wants their borders secured. So that's why we are moving forward. We will be coming back in after thanksgiving as well. We have seven of the bills to get finished and one of them happens to be dealing with this as well. I think we'll get it done.

SCALISE: We need to fully fund the wall. And we've been working with President Trump to do this.

INGRAHAM: But $5 billion doesn't get --

MCCARTHY: But it is a bill to build the wall.

SCALISE: Ultimately let's have this fight in the next few weeks.

MCCARTHY: Let's plug the book.

INGRAHAM: "Back in the Game." First of all, you look great. You are doing great. You're an inspiration to so many people, how you dealt with hardship. We all deal with hardship in our life. You dealt with really tough stuff over the last year. And I just want to tell you, just for me and watching you, I get teared up because you are incredible. And this book is important for people to read and understand, much better anything that McCarthy has written.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: That's that dry policy stuff. This is personal inspiration, but also why you can never give up. Your faith has been so important for you.

SCALISE: Laura, faith was so important to me. One of the reasons I wanted to write this book is to feature all the people that helped me get back in the game. And they were real heroes, there were real miracles that happened. And my wife Jennifer and I went through them. We call them the little miracles, just one thing after the other that happened on that ballfield and afterwards that you can't explain any way except that they were true miracles from God. And then the heroes, from David Bailey and Crystal Griner who risked their lives, got shot. In the book, we go into detail about that shoot-out.

INGRAHAM: And stuff that never had been revealed before.

SCALISE: They almost ran out of ammo. David was almost hit fatally. All of it is in the book. It's going to be something that everybody can get something out of about. A happy ending.

MCCARTHY: The day of the shooting, he won't remember this --

INGRAHAM: We're going to go to black here in a second.

MCCARTHY: But one thing I will tell you, we were there that day waiting for Jennifer. He's lucky he's alive.

INGRAHAM: We thought we lost you a number of times. Thank you so much. "Back in the Game." The power of prayer, that's what I take away from it.

Raymond Arroyo has answers for us in Seen and Unseen, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: It's time for are Seen and Unseen segment where we expose some of the big cultural stories of the day.

Getting banned from the happiest place on earth? Michelle Obama's subtle Trump book tour slice, and the lawyer to the porn stars booked for hitting a woman. Joining us now is Raymond Arroyo, Fox News contributor, New York Times bestselling author of the "Will Wilder" stories. Raymond, a New York man now has been permanently banned?

RAYMOND ARROYO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Banned.

INGRAHAM: From your favorite vacation destination.

ARROYO: From Disney. Dion Cini is his name. He is a recidivist Trump supporter, Laura. He's gone about parks carrying these posters that he, or banners, that he's displayed all over the parks. This is a guy who on Broadway, went to a Broadway show, "Frozen," rolled out a Trump banner. They had to pull it away from him. Then he goes to the Disney park, puts it in front of the train station. They warned him, because they have a policy, no flags or banners or signs that incite a crowd. He tested it again this week. He went on Splash Mountain, held a banner above his head as he went down the falls. You see him there. And they escorted him off the property, banned him from ever returning.

He says it's because of the content of the sign. The truth of the matter is they do have this standing policy. My advice? Where a wear a MAGA hat. Keep your politics in the political realm, keep entertainment and fun where it belongs.

Now, some people have problems with this, Laura, like Michelle Obama, who has embarked on a 13-city book tour to promote her new memoir. Her first stop was in Chicago last night where she appeared at a glittery interview with Oprah. But between the old stories and inspirational talk were some pointed critique at the president. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: People ask do I missed the White House. And it's like, no, I don't miss the house because we took what was important in that house with us. And it is with us. It's family, it's the values, it's the friendship. So the house is beautiful, and it's historic, and it was an honor to live there. But the people in it make it what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: People make it what it is. They took that magic, they took the glamour with them when they left the White House.

INGRAHAM: I'd say so.

ARROYO: It's a shell now, just a sad shell. Then there was the meditation on going low. Remember, when they go high, we go low. Watch this. See who's going low here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: -- get results when you go low. You just get your attitude out. When you are in the White House and you have that platform and that responsibility where every word matters, you are often thinking, at least Barack and I often thought is what we are about to say going to help, is it going to move the needle forward, or is it just going to make us feel vindicated in the moment?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: A gentle hit on Trump without leaving a bruise. Michelle is really good at this. She kind of messages this interestingly. And then we found this montage, Laura. It was very interesting. There was a line she kept using in all these interviews to promote the book. You know. You know.

INGRAHAM: You know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: You know. You know. You know. You know. You know. You know. You know. You know.

As you know. You know. You know. You know?

You know, you're writing your book. You know, Barack is, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARROYO: Fifty-five times she used you know in that interview.

INGRAHAM: She says it's like a lot, too.

ARROYO: Maybe she should change the name of the book from "Becoming" to "well, you know."

INGRAHAM: Maybe you know what it's like.

(LAUGHTER)

ARROYO: You know, Michelle Obama.

INGRAHAM: That's a gorgeous book cover.

ARROYO: We've got to move to Avenatti. Breaking news tonight. He has been arrested. Of course, Stormy Daniels' lawyer and Democratic presidential aspirant Michael Avenatti arrested by the LAPD tonight on allegations of domestic violence. The victim's face is reportedly bruised and swollen. At the time of the arrest, Avenatti said she hit me first, this is bull -- fill in the blank. That is one substance I think Avenatti probably has a lot of familiarity with. Your reaction to Avenatti's arrest here on these charges.

INGRAHAM: Here's what I'm going to say. Just because he takes conclusions with no evidence, I am not going to do that. I am a former defense lawyer and I don't like the idea of convicting someone on an allegation. I don't know enough about this case.

ARROYO: So don't believe the victim without proving it?

INGRAHAM: I want to see some more -- I don't see anything. TMZ has a thing.

ARROYO: It is interesting. The man that they raised up, he was going to take Kavanaugh down, Trump down.

INGRAHAM: I am still waiting for the two witnesses to spiking the punch bowl. Remember, he said I have two witnesses. They're going to come out any day now.

ARROYO: And there's a criminal referral, by the way, against him.

INGRAHAM: The guy is, come on. Tucker had the best description of him. That having been said --

ARROYO: You're not convicting him yet.

INGRAHAM: I don't convict people. Remember, I stood with Al Franken. Just because he had that weird picture, I didn't like that.

ARROYO: The merciful Laura Ingraham, you know. You know? You know.

(LAUGHTER)

INGRAHAM: His unpopularity might have cost the GOP a Senate seat in Arizona, and now Jeff Flake trying to further harm his party before he leaves. Ken Starr and Andy McCarthy are here to sound off next. Thanks, Raymond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF FLAKE, R-ARIZ.: With the firing of the attorney general and, in my view, the improper installation of an acting attorney general, the president now has this investigation in his sights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: With that utterance, outgoing Senator Jeff Flake has perfectly summed up his career in the upper chamber. Despite zero evidence of any threat to the Mueller investigation, Flake is now saying he'll block the confirmation of highly qualified conservative judges across the land.

Here now to react is former Whitewater independent counsel and judge himself, Ken Starr, and former assistant U.S. attorney and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy. Andy, you think this bill that Flake and his newfound Democratic buddies are offering is unconstitutional. Explain.

ANDY MCCARTHY, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, all of the authority in the Constitution in Article Two, all the executive authority is vested in the president. In our system, prosecution is an executive power. You cannot pass a Constitutional bill that essentially takes away the president's executive power and the president's power to lead the executive branch and reposes it in someone else, whether it's the prosecutor himself or some other branch of government to oversee him.

So the reason people oppose this, Laura, as a legal matter is that it's unconstitutional. But as a factual matter, as you suggest, this is pure grandstanding and theatrics under circumstances where there is no reason to believe there is any threat to the Mueller investigation.

INGRAHAM: And Judge Starr, think about the phenomenal, in many cases, young lawyers who have been waiting for confirmation. Appellate courts judges, district court judges, military court, you just want to hold them all up?

KEN STARR, FORMER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL, WHITEWATER: It's terrible. It really is. And I agree fully with Andy. There's no foreseeable threat. There just isn't. I understand that -- wait, who is this Mr. Whitaker guy and what did he say when he was a CNN commentator? But he's now the attorney general of the United States, so it's regular order. And as you well know, Laura, there are processes within the Justice Department, so he will be consulting on these kinds of actions that could affect the investigation. So he's not a solo performer.

INGRAHAM: I want to talk about what's going on with the Whitaker appointment, and you have some conservative lawyers, including Kellyanne Conway's husband and others who are saying this is completely unconstitutional and illegal to nominate or to appoint his as acting attorney general because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. I want to play a montage of some of them. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whitaker is effectively a constitutional nobody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Matthew Whitaker's appointment was unconstitutional, illegal, and just plain wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don't see any legal opinion that I can take seriously that counters this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Judge?

STARR: The Office of Legal Counsel is this set of constitutional lawyers. They are paid to look at these kinds of issues, and they concluded in a very careful memorandum. It's 30 pages long. People may disagree with it. I think it happens to be correct. This isn't whether it was wise to appoint Mr. Whitaker, it is was it lawful. I think it clearly was under a specific statute passed by Congress that permits the president to do exactly what he did.

INGRAHAM: Andy, I want to go to you on this. This is on Shep's show earlier today, Judge Napolitano was saying about this very issue and the OLC's ruling on the Whitaker appointments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: I was very disappointed to see the lawyers working for Matthew Whitaker go back to 1866 and look for a precedent there to decide whether or not he was lawfully appointed. I don't care what happened in 1866 because the Congress changed the law in the 1960s and said whoever runs the Justice Department has to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate because we put too much power in their hands. That kind of power can't go to a political hack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: OK, well, political hack, he was a federal U.S. attorney in Iowa. But your thoughts and what Judge Napolitano said there.

MCCARTHY: I was disappointed to hear my friend Judge Napolitano suggest -- well, I was disappointed to see that he doesn't really understand how the Office of Legal Counsel works. But what they do is things like go back to the precedents that go back to the founding of the country and to the constitution, particularly, Laura, when it's a constitutional claim being made. I understand Judge Napolitano's point that the statute is from 1998, but the statute is not what people are complaining about. It's whether this application of the statute is constitutional or not. And one of the ways that constitutional lawyers go about making that analysis is to go back to the history of the United States and see where the situation has come up again and how it's been handled.

INGRAHAM: Judge, do you think that Mueller is going to wrap this thing up, the Special Counsel, by the end of the year?

STARR: I think so. The indications are that we are moving along, but apparently there may be a couple of more indictments on the way. But I think we are ready for there to be a wrap.

INGRAHAM: Like Jerome Corsi and Roger Stone? Perjury, this process --

STARR: I will say this. Let's don't lie of the prosecutors. Bad idea.

INGRAHAM: Not a good idea. Guys, thank you so much.

And coming up, the media told you the caravan was no threat, 1,000 miles away, no worries. It's just a midterm scare tactic. Guess what? It's here. New details with the former head of ICE next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC CO-HOST: There is no doubt that what the president was considering great strategy to bring out his base, this stupid caravan conspiracy theory.

CHUCK HAGEL, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think it's obvious and it's very clear that it was a political stunt that he pulled. Using our troops as political pawns for his political interests is just wrong.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO, D-ARIZ.: Why the president stops talking about the caravan? Because the election is over. This is a stunt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: We aren't stopping talking about anything. The caravan is not a stunt. It's already actually in our own backyard. A DHS official telling Fox News that a breakaway group of a few hundred migrants from the caravan is at the border of Tijuana and San Diego. You can see dozens of migrants right here physically scaling the border wall. It's like an Olympic sport.

Former acting ICE director Tom Homan joins me with reaction. Tom, we were mocked for raising this issue, a massive caravan, thousands of people. In this case there are 400, 500. They are here.

TOM HOMAN, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: Game one. Let's go. I think the president has prepared us well. Border Patrol has additional resources. The ports of entry have additional resources, additional asylum officers. They will come in under our rules. They will come in, they'll be metered in, get their interview, they get their due process. And hopefully we detained them long enough to see a judge. A vast majority, the latest numbers I saw, 91 percent will lose their case because it's fraud, it's frivolous claims. Put them on a plane, send them home. As soon as that happens, we send a strong message and you see these caravans start dwindling.

INGRAHAM: Now, the president, I think in my interview and other interviews, has talked about tents. It was in my interview I did with him, we're going to have a lot of tents. To your knowledge, are there tents set up to hold these people?

HOMAN: I know we did solid structures in the past, back in 2014. I don't know what tents are available now, but look, tents, that's not a bad deal considering where they are supposed to be coming from.

I saw a video clip earlier today on Fox News and I saw one of the caravans carrying the Honduran flag, march with a Honduran flag. I never saw a group of political refugees carrying the flag of their oppressors.

INGRAHAM: I think of that poor Asia Bibi, that woman in Pakistan, the Christian woman, no one is giving her asylum. That woman is going to be killed in Pakistan. She is a Christian. She should be allowed to come into this country. I want this administration to allow her asylum. That's a clear case of asylum. Asia Bibi should be allowed to come into this country.

HOMAN: Nine out of 10 lose their case. So that's a clear example. They here to take advantage of a threshold in the system, they're coming here to America. If they're escaping fear and persecution, they could have gotten asylum in Mexico.

INGRAHAM: The president likes what you say on this issue. You are no nonsense, you see that repercussions to unlawful behavior are gaming the system. There are repercussions, and the law is uniformly enforced. You have less illegal immigration, just the way it works. So your name has been floated as a possible replacement for Nielsen should he she leave her post at DHS. Are you interested?

HOMAN: I can't speculate what the president is going to do. I can tell you this. The greatest assignment of my life was being the acting director of ICE for a year-and-a-half because I came up through the ranks. I've done the job.

INGRAHAM: You've done it.

HOMAN: The 20,000 men and women that worked for me? I didn't ask them to do anything I haven't done. And in one of the greatest honors of my life has been to work for this president, and I've worked for six of them, no one has done more for border security and immigration enforcement and law enforcement and the rule of law than President Trump. Thank God he's the guy sitting in the chair right now, especially in these times.

INGRAHAM: They got to get the Republicans to fund that wall and fund everything else we need to do, change the asylum laws, correct? They've got to do this.

HOMAN: If the Republicans would've joined with this president in the beginning, we wouldn't have the caravan today.

INGRAHAM: This is what the president said today about Nielsen. He said, "I'm looking at things. I haven't made a decision yet. I'll be making a decision on Homeland shortly. I have not made decisions. I will be making changes on various things." But your name is in the mix.

HOMAN: We've got a secretary. I support her. I know she's working really hard. I'm certainly honored that my name is being mentioned. Again, I salute this president because he's doing the right thing for this country. He's keeping his promises. And I can tell you the morale at ICE, the morale at Border Patrol has never been higher than it has been under --

INGRAHAM: I have a feeling it'll be pretty high if you are named as well. Tom, thanks so much, really, appreciate it. The last bite up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

INGRAHAM: All right, it's time for the last bite.

Today, Secretary of Defense James Mattis visited our southern border, and he had this inspirational message for the U.S. troops protecting America from that massive migrant caravan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Loyalty only matters when there's 100 reasons not to be loyal. Do you know what I mean? I mean when it is raining and you are cold, it is when you are in a position where people are showing a lack of respect for each other elsewhere, and you and your team are holding strong, you know. Nothing can change it. Nothing can change it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: What a stud. And The New York Times there would say, oh, they shouldn't be there. The - he is just great. I love that moment. Now, we thank all of our troops fighting to protect our freedom every day. Wherever you are, at home, abroad. And that's all the time we have. Shannon Bream and the fantastic "Fox News @ Night" team, take it from here.

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